I nabbed Marlie as she slid a little on the edge of the driveway. “Where’d you get this?”
“Oak made it for me! He made us all one.”
In all the excitement, I’d somehow missed Teague’s nephew. He was standing a little apart from the group and his mouth was smiling, but his eyes…they held something else. I studied him for a few seconds, trying to figure it out. But he caught me looking and his expression smoothed out.
“That was nice of him. Did you say thank you?”
Marlie nodded quickly and I set her down. She ran after her siblings, who, along with Caitlyn, were following everyone else into the house. I caught a snippet of conversation, something about showing it off before we unpacked the car and trailer. I sauntered closer to Oakley.
“Thank you for thinking of my kids. We don’t really need winter gear in Arizona, so we don’t have much yet.”
“I figured. I thought it would be a nice welcome home present. I, uh…” He blushed and pulled something out of his pocket, thrusting it in my direction. I took it and immediately recognized a hat, this one clearly meant for me as not only was it adult sized but a rich blue color in thick yarn. “If you want it.”
“This is great,” I said, keeping my voice low. I got the distinct impression that anything louder would spook him. I pulled it on. “It’s so warm. Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. I, um—” He shrugged, as though he wasn’t sure what to say.
He couldn’t quite look at me, his gaze fixed just over my shoulder. I wanted to say something to make it easier between us. We hadn’t talked a lot at Thanksgiving, but it hadn’t been awkward. Was it because of the gift? Or something else? Maybewhatever it was that I’d seen in his eyes a few moments ago. I wanted to ask, to help, but wasn’t sure it was my place.
“Daddy!”
Tristan’s voice was a whip crack in the otherwise quiet area. All the trees and snow did a pretty good job muffling the sounds of the world. Oak seemed to snap out of it, and he glanced at me before his gaze skittered away again.
“You should probably go see the house. We all worked hard to get it ready.”
“Thank you for that as well. I know it was a lot of work, and I appreciate that you were involved in getting it ready for my family.”
Oakley nodded, and a hint of a smile graced his lips. He met my gaze again, and the world seemed to go even more still. I didn’t dare breathe for fear he would run, and suddenly that was the last thing I wanted. Because he’d put so much time and effort into getting the Yellow House ready and I wanted to make sure he knew how much I appreciated it, that was all. Of course that had to be the reason.
“Daddy!” Tristan’s voice was even more insistent. “You have to come see. There’s a tree!”
I took a step back. “We’d better get in there.”
Oak shook his head. “I’ve, uh.” He cleared his throat. “I have to get back to work. I’m covering the desk so Charlie can help you get settled.”
And then before I could say anything, he turned and jogged down the drive and back toward the Inn. I watched him go and almost missed Cricket as she joined him since she blended in with the snow. A few seconds later, he disappeared around the curve and I had no choice but to head into the house.
“You got a hat too!” Tristan jumped off the porch when I was at the bottom step, and I caught him easily.
“Yep. Oak must have been busy making us all hats.”
Tris gave a content sounding sigh. “I like Oak.”
“Yeah, me too.” I glanced over my shoulder but there was nothing but trees and snow. “Show me this tree.”
Tris was all too happy to oblige.
Chapter 6
Oak
The hats. Yeah. It turns out crocheting hats wasn’t too difficult for me, and so I spent my evenings in my cabin, watching shows and crocheting. The kids each got one fitting to the colors of their room just so they would never need to figure out which was whose.
Then I realized that I needed to make Law one, too, and… that was the night when I sat on my bed, staring at the skeins around me, wondering what color to pick.
See, at first, I wanted to go with that same theme with the kids and make Law’s green. But the more I thought about that, the more I wanted to make it more special than that. I didn’t exactly know why, but something inside me said he deserved more thought.
In the end, I’d made his blue, because that’s what Charlie called him. The bond between the brothers was another thing I envied and hated myself a bit for daring to feel that way.
